Spandex, Murder, and Gibbs
by Rose.E.Velt
Summary: Two dead bodies are found at the Naval Yard and Gibbs and the team are sent in to investigate. One of the dead bodies is found to be a member of the Justice League. Now Gibbs has to dive into the DC world of superheroes and supervillians.
1. Chapter 1

Two dead bodies are found at the Naval Yard and Gibbs and the team are sent in to investigate. One of the dead bodies is found to be a member of the Justice League of America. Now Gibbs has to dive into the DC world of superheros and supervillians trying to find out if the deaths were murder, suicide, or accidental.

The story takes place in limbo, where certain parts from the comic world are used, and certain parts ignored, and from the timeline of NCIS its post-Director Shepard but could be anywhere in the later seasons. Also liberties are taken with characters, such as the fact I kill off a member of the Justice League. I do not own the characters in the following story.

**Chapter 1**

"...so then I said 'Can't you read...'" the naval officer was stopped mid sentence by his companion who shoved his hand in front of him to motion that he needed to stop. The naval watchmen had been going about their usual routine of keeping an eye out for things or people that should not be there when one of them had heard a noise. The naval officer that had heard the noise pulled out his gun and gave a hand motion to his companion that he would take point and that the other guy would cover him. Sneaking to where he thought he had heard the noise, the officers made their way across the building trying to make sense of the anomalous noise. BANG! The noise rang through the night, this time the officers ran to where they had heard the noise. The officers vaulted up the stairs and rushed out into the cold dark night onto the roof. "What the..." One of the officers said under his breath_. _

"_...and with other news today three bank robberies ensued in Metropolis with still no developments on why Superman did not come to the aid of..."_ Special Agent Tony DiNozzo was concentrating on the television next to his desk. DiNozzo was in such a state of concentration that he did not notice Ziva David sneak to his side. Ziva turned toward DiNozzo and crept closer starring at him like a lioness getting ready to pounce on an unsuspecting wildebeest. Timothy McGee was typing at his desk but was able to take himself away from his work to watch Ziva and Tony. "Boo!" Tony jumped. Hand to his heart, DiNozzo was panting, "What was that for, are you trying to kill me?" Ziva laughed, "I could have done worse." Ziva scanned Tony up and down making sure he would remember that she was an assassin. "So what are you watching?" Ziva asked while looking at the television. _"...one of our reporters was able to interview President Luthor about this issue. President Luthor was confident that even if Superman had disappeared the people would still be safe stating and I quote 'That is why there are emergency services that do not rely on meta-humans...'"_ Tony settled down and looked back at the television. "Well you see that..." SMACK! DiNozzo was hit in the back of the head. "We have two dead bodies at the naval yard." Leroy Jethro Gibbs had seemingly come out of nowhere just in time to catch his team not doing work. "Right," DiNozzo said while running back to his desk to get his gear so as to not get hit again. _"...the last sighting of Superman was three days ago when he saved a plane from crash landing into the Appalachians..."_ "Murder?" McGee asked as he followed Gibbs toward the elevator. Gibbs sharply turned around. McGee had to stop himself from bumping into his boss. "What did I tell you about that." "Sorry boss." Gibbs slowly turned around and went into the elevator. McGee had stopped in his tracks, with Ziva and Tony snickering behind him "Well are you coming or what," Gibbs said to his team. "Oh sorry boss." McGee muttered as they all went into the elevator.

"...Guards found them here last night." Two charred bodies were sprawled on the floor. McGee was taking pictures of the crime scene while Ziva and Tony were looking around the scene for clues. Gibbs looked at the charred bodies, "Where are they now?" The naval officer escorting NCIS to the crime scene face turned green as he looked from the bodies to Gibbs, "They are downstairs," Gibbs looked at him. "I will go get them," the naval officer said keeping back regurgitation. "You do that." Gibbs moved into the scene. "Watch out Mr. Palmer," Ducky said as the gurney bumped into something. "Sorry Dr. Mallard," Jimmy Palmer said as he clumsily brought the gurney up the steps onto the roof. Gibbs laughed to himself as Jimmy and Ducky came onto the roof. "Sorry Jethro, some of us are not awake yet." Ducky made an accusatory glance at Palmer. "It's okay Duck," Gibbs said as the two guards came onto the roof behind them.

Gibbs moved his way around the scene towards the two guards that had found the dead bodies. "Tell me what happened." Gibbs said, straight to the point. One of the guards started rattling off the details of what went on last night. "Thank you, we will contact you if we have any other questions." Gibbs started to walk away. "Wait sir," piped in the other guard that had remained silent during the retelling of the night before. Gibbs silently turned around. "Jethro..." Ducky said while still examining the dead bodies. Still looking at the guard, Gibbs replied, "Yeah Duck." "This body its..." Ducky tried to formulate his words, "there doesn't seem to be any signs of this body being burned, it seems that the charred body of the second body is mainly on this body...very curious." BEEP. Ducky took out the device used to get time of death, "Well this can't be right." Ducky said. "What is it?" Gibbs turned completely away from the guards. "According to this, it says that this man died less than an hour ago." "Maybe because the bodies were burned that it threw off the readings," Jimmy tried to give Ducky some reasoning. Ducky looked from the body to the device, "Remember this body shows no signs of actually being burned unlike the other body...hmmm." Ducky looked closer at the body that was such a mystery. With a start Ducky lunged back, "Oh dear," he got out.

"What is it Dr. Mallard?" Palmer asked looking at the body that was not burned with Ducky. "I know this man," Ducky barely got out. Gibbs went over to Ducky and squatted down behind him. "You know him to," Ducky wearily looked over at Gibbs, "It's Superman."


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Sorry about the really delayed update. Good news is that I will probably have a few more chapters updated before the weekend is over._

**Chapter 2**

Somewhere in orbit around Earth.

The Watchtower.

"Have you tried the communicator to reach him, again." The Flash asked for the what seemed like the hundredth time to J'onn J'onzz, who was the only one on watch with the Flash. J'onn J'onzz, with his monotone voice and impassive face, answered the Flash without looking over his shoulder from his work at the console relying important areas of interest in the world. "Wally, his signal is coming from his Fortress-" "Yeah, but, I mean how much solitude can one guy take-" the Flash sped across the room picking up random objects, then rushing to the other side so fast all one could see was a streak of color. "I mean what is he doing? Contemplating the meaning of life-" Again another dash of color as Wally runs to another object. "Wally-" "I mean we could totally handle everything ourselves without him, but would it kill him to call!" Wally pauses only long enough to strike an indignant pose, then started continuously pacing across the room without stopping and increasing his speed. The Martian got up and blocked the Flash's path. "Wally..." "Your right J'onn, we should all go and surprise him, maybe throw him a party, maybe even have Hawkgirl and Wonder women jump out of a cake for him, I'm sure that would cheer up even Batman, yeah I like the way you-" "Wally," the Martian grabbed the Flash by the shoulders until Wally stopped his nervous rambling and gave J'onn his attention. "We are all worried about him but when he is ready to come back you can talk to him and make sure he is all right." "-but what about the news, it's all about him being missing," the Flash finishes quietly. J'onn's emotionless face gave nothing away but his own suspicions and fears were playing in his head over and over again until he came to a decision.

Wally saw the moment something flickered in the Martians eyes. He knew that J'onn was using his mental powers to find Superman. A wave of relief washed over the Flash in seeing that not only was he not the only one worrying but that J'onn was taking a more proactive approach to finding Superman, an approach that was not taken lightly by either of them. Going into another person's mind, especially a friend such as Superman, was an immense invasion of privacy, even if it was done to find out if the person was safe or not. But desperate times call for desperate measures. As the Martian expanded his senses across the Earth, the Flash mused 'This would not be the first time that Superman had gotten himself in a jam and could not get out of for various reasons, whether it be krytonite or blackmail or just some random alien seeking his demise. But it will be okay because we will be able to get him out of whatever mess he is in.' When J'onn J'onzz seemed to come back to himself Wally was practically shaking the Martian's head off his body when he yelled, "Well what did you find? Is he coming back soon? Is he okay? Is he just in the doghouse from Lois? Was it Darkseid again? I'm telling you that guy just wont stay down. Maybe he is just visiting old superfriends?..." A million questions rushed past the Flash's mouth. Amongst the sea of questions coming from the Flash, J'onn managed to raise his gaze to Wally's, and the latter knew that something was wrong. J'onn said one thing before he phased out and went down into the floor. It echoed in the Flash's ears. For ages that is all that he could hear and all the implications were swarming his head to the brink. A short phrase, but not one that would have heralded good news.

"Get Batman."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Back at the crime scene.

The silence in the room was palpable. Everyone had turned facing the body that up until that point they had assumed was an anonymous marine. Gibbs came too first, "Duck lets not make any hasty assumptions. I would hate to be investigating the murder of a superhero then see him on the 8 o'clock news." Upon hearing the doubt associated with his findings, Dr. Mallard went up on the defensive, "But Jethro, who other then an alien, like a Krytonian, could come out so well from being burned. Just look at his human counterpart next to him. There are no discernible features. Also, I am sure if I were to try to make an incision on his body with my regular tools they would not suffice because of his species' characterisitics." Gibbs took a step closer to Ducky and lowered his voice, "We will keep this point quiet until you are damn sure that one of Earth's greatest heroes is dead." At Gibbs's look, Ducky consented and in an equally quiet voice, "Alright for now we will go through the usual processes for identifying John Does. But I am telling you, Jethro, he is Superman." At that Gibbs and Ducky looked around the crime scene. "There's nothing more we can do here, the lab will help us get a more conclusive finding for time of death, cause of death, identification..."

During Gibbs and Ducky's hushed conversation, Ziva, Tony, and McGee continued on investigating with new determination. Ziva canvased the crime scene, 'If there had been many clues as to whether this was indeed a murder, and if it was murder who and why, they were probably all incinerated.' Despite her negative thoughts on the matter, Ziva continued looking around the crime scene and taking pictures of every inch of it. Just then something caught her eye in the corner.

Tony tried to lighten the mood a bit with, "So I think that this is way out of our jurisdiction, especially since this would become an intergalactic matter." When there was no response he continued, "You know how horrible American big wigs are, just think how bad superhuman big wigs could be." A mischievous glint caught in Tony's eye, "Better yet, imagine all the superhuman females we get to meet. Huh, am I right?" Tony was nudging McGee. "I'm sure you've thought of many superheroines, right?" McGee stopped his investigating to give Tony a look, while Tony kept on smiling and nodding his head. _SLAP! SLAP!_ Gibbs hit Tony and McGee over head. A gruff "get back to work," floated from behind Gibbs as he continued on over to Ziva to see what she was intent on looking at.

"What did you find?", Gibbs asked as he crouched down beside Ziva. Ziva had crouched down to where there was a gap between a soot blackened steel box and the wall, and had gotten a pair of pincers out along with an evidence bag. She was eying something up, then lent in with the pincers and grabbed it. Bringing it to eye level, Gibbs saw that it was a gray feather. Ziva contemplated the possibilities of the feather. Then something struck her memory, something consisting of green tights and gray wings. "Doesn't Superman have an acquaintance who has feathers...what was his name...birdman? No, not bird, but some type of bird of prey...maybe Eagleman," Ziva was trying to grasp at her knowledge of the English language and their superheroes. "Hawkman." McGee supplied. "Thank you!" Ziva replied exultingly. Gibbs was still staring at the feather, his gut was telling him something about this feather. "I need coffee," Gibbs said as he came out of his crouching position, "Okay we are finished here, lets take everything back to base, have Abbie identify what kind of feather that is because if it's just a gull I really doubt that it is to blame for a double homicide. And everyone don't forget that there is a dead, possibly a Marine, here as well." As everyone packed up Gibbs thoughts clouded his mind, 'This case has barely anything to start with, only two burned bodies and a feather, but still if it was not for Ziva seeing that feather we would have even less. Sometimes it was really great to have a trained Mossad agent on the team.' Gibbs took a cursory glance at the crime scene again and issued orders to the agents left to bring in samples of the debris to Abbie's lab for testing, they still needed to figure out how the fire started.


	4. Chapter 4

The Watchtower

The Justice League members did not know where to begin. Half of them could not of even remain sitting at the table for very long. Eyes kept gravitating toward the empty seat that usually was filled by Superman, but now left a vacancy so immense that it ripped at the seems of their existence.

BAM! "WE CAN'T JUST SIT AROUND HERE AND DO NOTHING!" Wonder Woman slammed her fist down on the table and declared what most had been thinking. Hawkman looked at Wonder Woman and gave her a diminishing look, "And what do you suppose we do?" Wonder Woman began pacing and waving her arms around with all her super strength and anger packed into it. "ANYTHING! EVERYTHING! Just something to do that will stop us from sitting around here and wallowing and thinking that Superman is dead, because we all know he can't be, its a huge mistake so we should go down there and tear off their heads for even suggesting such a thing, I mean not only that but if it is we need to start beating skulls to find out who could have done this. It must have been Luthor, I mean who else would do this at a time like this."

Wonder Woman's tirade led her to throw anything and anyone in her path away. She was making her way towards the door when Green Lantern had had enough. "DIANA!" "...and where is everybody anyway I mean in a situation like this we need everyone, call in the alternates, call Huntress, Black Lightning, maybe the Teen Titans, hell call the Wonder Twins, I don't care ..." "DIANA!" "WHAT!" "Breath okay. We will have the best look into the situation and have Lois identify that it is Superman, but you have to keep a lid on your anger if you want to be included in this as well." Green Lantern broached the subject steadily. "What do you mean?" The Amazonian woman turned a glare that Medusa would be jealous of on to him. "Well look at the destruction," he gestured broadly to the road that they had been in. The room in which previously six members had stood tall, the Flash laid knocked out on the floor, the usually emotionless martian was seemingly in the corner shaking, Green Lantern himself had a bruised face, Aquaman was getting up from underneath the table from which he had taken shelter, and Hawkman had fled at some point of her tirade.

Scanning the room, J'onn J'onzz took note of all the missing team members. It was not all together unexpected when Hawkman fled the room, unlike Aquaman he could not fit under the table to hide from Diana's wrath. But the others that had not even bothered to show up to the meeting, when something this important needed to be discussed was troublesome. Deciding to dwell on these matters at another more appropriate time, the martian reached out for Hawkman's mind to inform that Wonder Woman's distress had been curtailed. But all that was replied was "Can't come back, gotta go." After shaking through his clouded mind, J'onn looked over at what had been mayhem seconds before to see Green Lantern sitting Wonder Woman down at the table while the Flash tried to console her. "Look Diana, I mean how many times have we thought that Superman died! Too many to count I'll tell you." Wally waited for his expected laugh from Wonder Woman, but when only a blank stare was returned he grew sheepish. "What," the Flash shrugged, "It's true!" When no one intervened he marched on, "Remember how insane Batman was once, and he was all like 'He's not really dead' and we were like 'Yes he is' and when Big Blue came back weren't we all embarrassed." The Flash smiled triumphantly as if he had just won the argument that no one was having with him.

"Where is Batman?" Aquaman sounded another one of the endless questions that had been popping up into their heads all day. "I haven't heard from him since I informed him of the situation." J'onn declared to the meeting. They all looked from one to another as if searching each other for Batman. Except Wonder Woman, she sat there were a determined look on her face and half a smile, "I know where he is..."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

NCIS Headquarters

"AGENT GIBBS!" Director Jenny Shepard's raised voice drifted down to the lower level while Gibbs who was assigning his team to their various tasks seemed to ignore it.

Sensing an order coming from Jenny, Gibbs continued on with his team: "Elflord!"

"Yes Boss."

"Well..." McGee looked at a loss as to what Gibbs was waiting for, he had been distracted by the NCIS Director's attempt at grabbing Gibbs's attention. Tony and Ziva were whispering and flipping through some file on Tony's desk. They had been assigned to find out more about the other victim in the murder. McGee was just standing in front of Gibbs's desk, he had been on his way to say something to Gibbs when Jenny had started in on her power play.

Then to save himself sometime, but not to stop McGee from squirming because that was too entertaining, Gibbs gave McGee a clue as to what he wanted, "You. Standing here...why?" A sudden look of understanding dawned on McGee's face.

"Um...sorry boss. I just wanted to point out that we weren't looking into the Superman aspect of the," At Gibbs's look McGee slammed his mouth closed, effectively ending that train of thought. Gibbs got out of his seat and leaned over his desk.

"Exactly what would you have us do McGee? As of right know we do not know who to contact about the death , we sure as hell cannot inform the press or all would break loose knowing Big Blue is dead. We have to keep everything quite about this, if we started snooping around asking who might want to murder Superman this would cause world wide panic. We can't even contact any civilian relation he has because we do not know his secret identity, even if he had a secret identity, Abby is putting his picture through the various databases but who knows if we will find anything. What do you suppose we should do call up the Justice League? Does Ducky even know how to do an autopsy on a Krytonian..." Gibbs continued his angry tirade, quietly and contained, but to the point. Sometimes slamming his hand on the desk for emphasis.

Throughout all of his tirade Jenny's voice had increased in volume to the point in which everyone else on the floor was looking at the Director. Jenny had already decided she would not give Gibbs the satisfaction and come down there to his level. But when Gibbs graced her with a look, utter silence filled the room. An eternity passed by just in that one look, in his eyes flashed all the wrongs she had once done to him. She relented, she couldn't win, not today. Seeing this, Gibbs turned his attention back to McGee.

McGee cast a wary glance around, then in a lowered voice, "But what about the comic books, sir." At Gibb's blank look McGee continued, "The comics have been said to be based on the real thing, maybe he goes by Clark Kent as well. I mean it's a pretty common name but I think that," Gibbs in an equally quite voice cute him off and told him to compile a list of possible identifications through the DMV and have Abby check to see if there are any matches with their body. McGee scurried off to hopefully get a break through on one of the greater mysteries of this time. He would be excited if it was not for such circumstances.

Director Shepard had made her way down to Gibbs by then. As McGee rushed away, Jenny began would be a difficult day in the NCIS world. "Jethro, you're needed in MTAC."

Gibbs pointedly sat down. "Can't. Case." He took a sip of his coffee. "You remember my highly _confidential_ and of high priority murder investigation." His emphasis on 'confidential' indicated that he knew very well that some one up high had been informed and wanted their two cents in on the investigation.

"It's the President, he wishes to speak to you about that _confidential _case." Her emphasis on 'confidential' indicated that Gibbs better get his ass up there and talk to the President of the United States of America. When Jenny was sure he understood she turned and left. Gibbs chuckled as the Director walked away. She would think that this was a draw, but in reality Gibbs won this round because he had just been given access to his number one suspect: Lex Luthor.

"'Sir the impossible situation we never planned for?...Well we'd better come up with a plan!'" Tony quoted to Ziva from the X-files movie. "Ohh...Come on, didn't you," Ziva did not give Tony a chance to finish his thought, with lightning fast reflexes she took out a knife that was concealed in her boot leg and held it up to Tony's throat. Her actions were still concealed from everyone else in the room by her long sleeve. The dangerous gleam was back in Ziva's eyes and it made Tony nervous.

"I do not have the patience for your movie quotes today Tony," With wide eyes he just nodded his head. Ziva smirked and put her knife away.

"I don't even see what that quote has to do with anything going here anyway." Purposely goading him, Ziva continued, "I think your losing your touch." This she whispered into his ear as she walked over to Gibbs.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs yelled at Tony breaking him out of his trance. Tony quickly got up and closed the distance between him and the rest the team before the went into MTAC. "On your six boss."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

MTAC, NCIS Headquarters

The team filed into MTAC for the video conference with the President. The Director was already sitting in the theater style seats when Gibbs came in. "Was it necessary to bring the whole troupe?" Jenny questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Gibbs just stated. He stopped in the middle of the room, while Tony, Ziva, and Tim sat at the side.

Gibbs nodded at the agent to signal that he was ready to open the channel to the President. The live video conference with Lex Luthor sitting at his desk in the the Oval Office popped on screen.

"Mr. President," Gibbs acknowledged, starting the formalities.

Smiling a very practiced Cheshire grin, the President spoke, "I take it that you are the infamous Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs." Not letting Gibbs confirm if this was the case, he continued unfazed. "I heard about the tragedy that has befallen an old friend of mine and I wanted to inquire as to the nature of the death."

Obviously believing that this agent would bend his will, Luthor sat up a bit more waiting for the answer he thought was inevitable. Gibbs, used to people throwing their weight around during his investigations, was not shaken at all.

"That's classified." There was silence over the feed. The men were sizing each other up.

When Lex had apparently finished his assessment of Gibbs, he continued the strained conversation, "I'm sure you have questions to ask me Agent Gibbs, lets get to the point of it shall we. I do have a busy day ahead of me," condescension dripping from Lex's tone.

Doctor Mallard slipped into the back and caught Gibbs' eye. DiNozzo caught on and deciding to break Gibbs's own rules for him, got up quickly and stood up in the middle of the room, "Um, sir, excuse me, but I have a few questions."

"And whom might you be?" the President asked, not holding back on the disdain.

Tony did not seem to notice and continued with his introduction, "Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, sir. I was always wondering...why green and purple, I mean-"

Taking the hint Gibbs went off to the side to see what Ducky thought was important enough to come topside for. "What do you have Duck?"

In hushed tones, the doctor replied, "I have time of death for our dead marine. On I hunch I had Abby check to see when the body was burned in relation to time of death, the body was burned postmortem and not very long after his death. You know several cultures would burn their dead and there is this one that-"

"I need a time frame, Duck."

"...What? Oh , your not going to catch Luthor without a solid alibi if he is guilty, and more than likely he would have someone else do it. He can't afford to dirty his hands."

"Someone close to him?"

At that question, Ducky glanced at the screen, the President was maintaining a visage of calm during Tony's inane questions.

"No, nothing that could point to him, it would not even be someone from his past connections, it would have to be someone random off the street that would receive no compensation."

Gibbs nodded, "Then no money linking them together."

Ducky continued with his profiling, "You may want to look into missing persons in the DC area because that could lead to your murderer." Both men were looking at the President on the screen now.

"Thanks Duck," Gibbs walked back to DiNozzo's side.

"...Oh come on, you can't seriouslly tell me you did not have a thing for Catwo—Oh nice meeting you Mr. President." At the look Gibbs gave him, Tony backed away.

"Will that be all Agent Gibbs, I have pressing matters to attend to," Luthor said in clipped tones.

"That's it," Gibbs said, putting up his with the intenton of telling the agent in charge of the switchboard to cut off the President.

"Just one final word of advice agent, Superman has fought for his life against enemies all the time."

"Your point Mr. President."

"His guard was never down around enemies, only friends, only around his allies. Remember that." Gibbs had enough and cut off the feed.

Gibbs turned to his team who all looked at bit weary at that bit of advice with their investigation.

Ziva was confused, "He wants us to investigate Superman's allies, that's like a wild boar chase."

A beat passed. Tim spoke up, "Um, Ziva I think you mean a wild 'goose' chase."

Tony, after laughing at the image of Ziva chasing a boar around, and then of Tim getting chased by a goose, turned to Gibbs. "What now boss?"


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Thanks those who reviewed and for your suggestions. I'm sorry about the spelling mistakes for names and things, I'm going from memory when I write it and it was obviously flawed. And I hope that the structure is better now, I've been told before that my stories look like essays sometimes. This chapter was just a little chapter. And don't worry there will be lots of twists and turns in the story just like in NCIS episode, and I hope it will be interesting...

Chapter 7

Meanwhile at the Oval Office

Lex Luthor looked at the blank screen. He chuckled. That Gibbs reminded his of someone.

THWAK!

Luthor went flying. In seconds a hand was wrapped around his throat. When Luthor's mind caught up with his body, he saw who the attacker was.

"Bruce. I was wondering when you would grace me with your-" the hand around Lex's throat tightened slightly "-p-presence." Coughing a little to force his airways to work, Lex did not seem deterred.

"I heard out mutual acquaintance had a nasty accident." Lex could not help but smile in the face of danger when he knew he was pissing it off.

The slits of Batman's cowled face narrowed, "Tell me what you know."

"It would be easier for me to undergo your interrogation if you weren't chocking me and shoving me up against a wall."

In a blink of an eye Batman returned to the shadows on the far side of the room. Any closer and he might do something that he would regret, _'Not me, but the others would regret...some of them would at least.' _

"What do you know," Batman did not ask, he demanded an answer from the President.

A wide grin spread across the President's face, he so did love being the bearer of bad news, "There's a rift in the ranks," pausing for dramatic effect, "if I were you I would do an in-house investigation rather than seek out old enemies."

Luthor could see the wheels turning in Batman's head, he thought _'Well one more for the road.'_

"And Batman, it might interest you to know that the NCIS investigation of Superman's murder has uncovered something," Lex paused smiling as he used his hands to straighten out his suit that had gotten creased during his unfortunate tussle with Batman and finally sat down, "a feather."

When Lex looked up Batman was not there anymore. _'I hate it when he does that.'_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Watchtower.

More Leaguers had come and gone, all had varying degrees of emotions: from morose to righteous anger. The rec room had become the gathering place when the superheroes were not away on duty where they could all mourn together. Black Canary sat at a table off to the side, beside herself with deciding whether to be angry or to be sobbing. The Flash was zipping through the room, twitching nervously without pause but sopped long enough to pat Canary on the back. Aquaman was talking to Zantanna while standing in the corner, they were surreptitiously glancing at the scene being played out in front of them.

Wonder Woman was pacing like a tiger ready to strike while Hawkman was facing her on standing tall. Wonder Woman growled, "Your not even waiting until the body's cold until you take his place."

Hawkman's wings spread, like a peacock showing his plumage, "He _will_ be missed, but someone needs to take charge while your all just crying out 'poor me'. The burden that Superman took is now on all of our shoulders." The were circling each other now. "And, what your the best for the job." Black Canary muttered.

Hawkman turned sharply, shoving his wings into Wonder Woman's face. "Dinah, I'm sure _you_ would want us to fight it out. The winner takes all. Isn't that what happens in your ring fights your so fond about."

Black Canary slammed her fist down on the table surface, her voice rough from crying, "Don't your dare talk down to me like that. I know that fighting wont help because no matter how hard I hit," her voice level dropping with resignation, "no matter how much we take, it wont bring him back."

For the first time all the Leaguers took each other in. They noticed that Black Canary had red raw fists from overuse and that Wonder Woman still had blood on hers. They noticed that Zantanna had bloodshot eyes and that Aquaman had bags under his. They noticed that Hawkman had been malting with worry and that Flash could not stop moving.

Black Canary's voice broke the silence, "This isn't helping. _Fighting_. With each other. While whoever killed Big Blue is laughing at us." Canary stopped at this, looking at the few who had come to the Watchtower. So few were ever gathered at a time that no one had though about it but, "What if we're still being played. Aren't we still having trouble contacting some members."

Flash jolted to Canary's side, "That's right. I haven't seen Firestorm lately."

"Or Atom or Red Tornado," Zantanna cut in, looking increasingly worried.

Wonder Woman's fiery glare ignited to a full blaze, her eyes pulled to Hawkman, "Can't forget Hawkgirl."

Hawkman stiffened at this. While the others had mentioned names of their colleagues out of worry, Wonder Woman had done it out of malice and suspicion. If anybody else had noticed they did not show it.

At that moment J'onn J'onzz phased through the floor behind Flash. "Hawkgirl is missing?" the Martian's monotone voice resounded in the room. The Flash jumped a mile.

The room was surprised at the Martian's entrance. Aquaman was able to answer first, "Yes, Hawkgirl is missing, along with several other members of the Justice League."

"Why do you ask?" Zantanna queried, she looked mildly hopeful that the telepath would be able to locate Hawkgirl.

J'onn looked very still for a moment but then he continued on, "They found a feather at the crime scene. Batman wanted us to go to the investigative agency's headquarters to ascertain if the feather was from one of our enemies." A look of genuine shock on crossed everyone's face.

After a moment of silence had crossed the room, Black Canary's voice grated over their ears, "Some of us should go to the HQ like Batman stated, but I think that right now we need to find Hawkgirl too before it's too late. We will need to work fast if..." her sentence trailed off. They all knew what.

As the team filed out of the room, The Flash caught up with Black Canary. "You know there's a possibility that Hawkgirl isn't a victim in this." Canary just looked at her friend, "We have to start somewhere."


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N I apologize for the wait. And for this chapter, I am not a science person so describing the autopsy is difficult. I have two more updates that will probably come out by the end of this week._

**Chapter 9**

"Duck, what'dya have for me?" Gibbs walked into autopsy. Two bodies were out on the slabs. The one on the far right that had sustained more damage in the fire had it's chest cavity open. Ducky was hovering over the other body contemplating his next move.

Doctor Mallard looked away from the cadaver. "Jethro, we have a problem. I cannot seem to perform an autopsy on this body." Ducky was very troubled. Next to him was a medical tray with various autopsy instruments that were bent and broken in all sorts of ways. "If my visual identification was not enough evidence for whom this man really is, then my broken instruments," Ducky gestured at the tray, "are more proof that this man is Superman! How can I be expected to perform an autopsy on a body that I cannot-"

Gibbs surveyed the situation, "I'll work on that."

Stopping mid-tirade, Ducky shared a glance with Gibbs. "Do tell Jethro."

"What about our Marine?" Gibbs tilted his head towards the other body, abruptly redirecting the conversation. Ducky turned towards the dead marine, "Finger printing was difficult but we got a partial print, I sent it up to Abby to confirm that the dog tags found on the body are a match. Its always difficult to obtain finger prints from a burn victim, so I..."

"Duck," Gibbs interrupted Ducky, "cause of death?"

"Ahh, yes, very well. Our marine didn't die in the fire. There is no evidence of smoke inhalation." Ducky took out an x-ray and put it up on the overhead. "There was something quite peculiar in the x-ray." Flipping a switch on the overhead, the x-ray lit up. "It seems our marine has an anomaly in his stomach."

Gibbs looked over Ducky's shoulder at the x-ray. "See? It's here. In the stomach." Ducky pointed to a small white blip on the x-ray where the lower intestine would be.

"I was waiting for Mister Palmer to arrive before I ascertained the identity of the object and what damage it did on our marine." Just then the automatic doors slid open and Jimmy Palmer walked in. "Ah Mister Palmer, glad you could join us."

"Sorry Doctor Mallard I was-" Jimmy started to explain. "It's all very well Mr. Palmer, but I need your assistance in examining this body." Ducky interrupted Jimmy, and gestured for him to put on his medical gear.

"Now without further ado," Ducky picked up a medical instrument to sift through the stomach of the dead body. Gibbs came up behind Ducky to observe the procedure while Jimmy stood opposite of Doctor Mallard.

"Gotcha," Ducky pulled out the anomaly and brought it to eye level. All three men's eyes were glued to the object.

"Is that what I think it is." Palmer stuttered out.

Ducky and Gibbs shared a look. Gibbs looked back at the green crystal-like rock that, despite it having blood on it, was easily recognizable."It's Kryptonite"


End file.
